B’Tselem calls on world to ‘intervene’ to stop ‘more perfect occupation,’ and Netanyahu goes ballistic

This is an important developing story about Israel’s moral crisis/delegitimization in the eyes of the world.

Last Friday, Hagai El-Ad, the head of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, spoke at the United Nations Security Council in a special discussion on Israeli settlements and urged it to take action at last against the occupation because, as he explained later, “The reality will not change if the world does not intervene. I suspect that our arrogant government also knows this, so it’s busy fearmongering against such an intervention.”

At the U.N., El-Ad described the administration of the territories as “a legal guise for organized state violence.” He itemized how every aspect of the illegal colonization project receives the legal blessing of Israeli judges and officials, and how human rights atrocities against Palestinians are never investigated.

We have had plenty of time to work towards a more perfect occupation…. Look at the occupation and all the legal pretense surrounding it, and call it for what it is: a legal guise for organized state violence.

And he threw in this challenge to the U.S.

Six-and-a-half years ago US Vice President Joe Biden warned that “the status quo is not sustainable”. … The “status quo” – that ever progressing vector of Israeli interests at the expense of Palestinian rights – has proven not merely sustainable, but in fact thriving.

Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now also spoke at the Security Council session and described apartheid-like conditions in the occupied territories (without using the a-word) and said, “I urge you here today to finally take action in the Security Council.”

All weekend Israeli PM Netanyahu lashed out against B’Tselem, and Americans for Peace Now too.

PM Netanyahu will act to amend the national service law so that it will no longer be possible to do national service with the B'Tselem org.

On Facebook Saturday, Netanyahu said that what B’Tselem and Peace Now could not achieve by democratic means, they were trying to achieve by international pressure. They’d “joined the chorus of slander” of Israel, by saying that “the occupation of the west bank settlements” was the reason of conflict, when it’s the Palestinian refusal to recognize “the Jewish state.” Partial translation from Haaretz.

In Israeli democracy fleeting and bizarre organizations like B’Tselem can also express themselves. But most of the public knows the truth. We will continue to defend justice and our state in the face of all international pressure…. the truth is that the Palestinians attacked Israel for some 50 years, before there was one settlement. They continue to attack Israel from the Gaza Strip even after we left it completely.

“We believe that a free and unfettered civil society is a critical component of democracy…we believe it is important that governments protect the freedoms of expression, and create an atmosphere where all voices can be heard.

“We are troubled by instances anywhere in the world where these principles are threatened.”

The New York Times had a good story on the flap yesterday, saying the Netanyahu threat is symbolic:

Mr. Netanyahu’s pronouncement was largely symbolic: Only three volunteers from a program for 18-year-olds exempted from compulsory military service on ideological, religious, health or other grounds have applied to perform national service at B’Tselem in the last seven years. Amit Gilutz, a spokesman for B’Tselem, said no other volunteers were in the pipeline

Intervention by the world against the occupation is just as legitimate as any human-rights issue. It’s all the more so when it involves an issue like our ruling over another people. This is no internal Israeli matter. It is blatantly an international matter.

Here’s another conclusion: There is no chance Israeli society, of its own volition and without any help, will end the nightmare.

The personal parts of his statement are moving:

I spoke at the United Nations against the occupation because I am an Israeli. I have no other country. I have no other citizenship and no other future. I grew up here and will be buried here. I spoke at the UN Security Council against the occupation because I am optimistic, because I am an Israeli, because I was born in Haifa and live in Jerusalem, and because I am no longer a young man and every day of my life has accompanied our control of them. And because it is impossible to carry on like this.

We must not carry on like this. I spoke at the UN Security Council against the occupation because I am striving to be a human being.

El-Ad defended himself in part because a Labor activist filed a treason charge against him! The Times of Israel:

An activist for the Labor party has filed a police complaint for alleged treason against the human rights group B’Tselem, amid anger over a speech by the organization’s director criticizing Israeli settlement policy at a United Nations forum last week.

The complaint… alleges that B’Tselem has worked to damage the sovereignty of the state, give land away to a foreign entity, and has taken steps that could cause a war. The three accusations are listed as clauses in Israel’s criminal code under “Treason.”

Netanyahu is leading Israel to a frontal collision w/ the world over occupation. His only response is demonizing those sounding the warning.

The New Israel Fund’s Daniel Sokatch issued a statement last night warning that Netanyahu is inciting violence, and behaving like Donald Trump. He reminds us that B’Tselem has gotten death threats before.

[B]y threatening legislation to retaliate against B’Tselem, the prime minister is acting in a manner that is deeply at odds with democratic values. This is the type of vengeance we might expect from a Donald Trump-controlled government, but not from the elected leader of a truly democratic society….

This rhetoric has consequences. For decades, Israel’s human rights activists didn’t have to worry much about personal security. But, as the incitement against them grew, that changed. You may remember that two years ago NIF had to approve emergency funding to B’Tselem so that they could upgrade their security protocols. We have had to continue that support. Netanyahu’s action this weekend ups the ante and creates more threats that Israel’s human rights community must address.

Sokatch reached an optimistic conclusion that reminds us that liberal Zionists live in never-never land.

I have every reason to be confident in the ability of the Israeli public to understand what’s really going on here, to understand that Netanyahu has over-played his hand, and to reject what he’s trying to do.

Below is El-Ad’s speech on video, complete with the disturbing videos he played during the speech, followed by the transcript.

Before I begin, I would like to express my deep thanks for this unique opportunity of speaking at this distinguished forum and engaging with the members of the UN Security Council.

What I’m about to say is not meant to shock you. It is, however, meant to move you.

For the past 49 years – and counting – the injustice known as the occupation of Palestine, and Israeli control of Palestinian lives in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, has become part of the international order. The first half-century of this reality will soon be over. On behalf of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, I implore you today to take action. Anything short of decisive international action will achieve nothing but ushering in the second half of the first century of the occupation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What does it mean, in practical terms, to spend 49 years, a lifetime, under military rule? When violence breaks out, or when particular incidents attract global attention, you get a glimpse into certain aspects of life under occupation. But what about the rest of the time? What about the many “ordinary” days of a 17,898-day-long occupation, which is still going strong? Living under military rule mostly means invisible, bureaucratic, daily, violence. It means living under an endless permit regime, which controls Palestinian life from cradle to grave: Israel controls the population registry; Israel controls work permits; Israel controls who can travel abroad – and who cannot; Israel controls who can visit from abroad – and who cannot; in some villages, Israel maintains lists of who can visit the village, or who is allowed to farm which fields. Permits can sometimes be denied; permits must always be renewed. Thus with every breath they take, Palestinians breathe in occupation. Make a wrong move, and you can lose your freedom of movement, your livelihood, or even the opportunity to marry and build a family with your beloved.

Meanwhile, ever present, are the settlements and the settlers. They are Israeli citizens living, ostensibly, in a first-world democracy, that somehow exists only for them, beyond the borders of their country. This ever-expanding venture, its illegality notwithstanding, is to be found everywhere throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlements encompass the built-up areas as well as the generous allocations of land around them, meant for future expansion or “special security zones”; they mean checkpoints for Palestinians, and bypass roads for settlers; they mean the Separation Barrier; and finally, they mean the fragmentation of Palestine into hundreds of isolated communities, floating – or rather I should say, slowly sinking – in a sea of Israeli domination. Who could possibly deserve to endure such conditions for half a century?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Almost all aspects of this reality are considered legal by Israel. Israel’s control of Palestinian lives is unique in the careful attention the occupying power gives to the letter of the law, while strangling its very spirit. The occupation has so perfected the art of watering down International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law as to render them virtually meaningless. Once military lawyers, State Attorneys and Supreme Court justices are done masterfully chiseling out legal opinions, all that remains is raw injustice.

Show me a dead Palestinian whose killing must be explained away to ensure impunity, and there you will find a learned opinion by the Military Advocate General. Show me the 100,000 Palestinians ignored and neglected on the other side of the Separation Barrier built inside East Jerusalem, and I will remind you that even this glaring injustice has been pre-approved by Israel’s High Court of Justice.

Show me a plot of Palestinian land you wish taken over, and the Civil Administration will come up with the appropriately tailored legal mechanism – of course, it must all be legal! – to achieve that end: military training zones, nature reserves, archaeological sites and, above all, declaring thousands of acres “State Land” – what “State” exactly? All these are successfully used in order to forcibly displace Palestinians and justify denying them access to running water or the power grid. Of course, such Israeli actions aren’t successful 100% of the time. That would be too transparent. So once in a long while, maybe once a decade, a low-ranking soldier might be put on a show trial; and once in a blue moon a master plan for a Palestinian village will be approved. These extraordinary cherry-picked rarities provide useful distractions from the big picture.

In order to uphold the guise of legality, Israel applies “due process” in just about everything: to potentially force-feed hunger strikers, as recently approved by the High Court; to routinely approve and renew administrative detention orders, or extend prolonged imprisonment without trial, of hundreds of Palestinians; to demolish the homes of the families of Palestinians who perpetrated attacks – yes, that too has happened hundreds of times, with due process and a seal of approval by the High Court. Since the year 2000, more than 4,400 Palestinians have lost their homes in this way.

Yes, Israel has professional lawyers, attorneys and judges. It is, indeed, a highly “professional” occupation. We have had plenty of time to work towards a more perfect occupation. But you don’t need to be a lawyer in order to recognize injustice. Look at the occupation and all the legal pretense surrounding it, and call it for what it is: a legal guise for organized state violence.

Video screened during address: Razed to the ground, July 2016

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Israel has systematically legalized human rights violations in the occupied territories through the establishment of permanent settlements, punitive home demolitions, a biased building and planning mechanism, taking over Palestinian land and much, much more. Israel’s military law enforcement system – if one can call it that – routinely whitewashes hundreds of cases in which Palestinians were killed or abused.

Here are some figures: Israel has declared 20% of the West Bank “State Land”; Israel “generously” allows Palestinians to build on one-half of one percent of Area C, the 60% of the West Bank placed “temporarily” under Israeli control a generation ago; over the past decade, Israel has demolished some 1,200 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, thereby rendering homeless over 5,500 people, half of them minors; East Jerusalem figures would raise these by roughly another 50%; in April 2016 there were about 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody, a quarter of them individuals remanded for the duration of their military court proceedings, and roughly 10% administrative detainees. One final figures: in a quarter of the 740 plus complaints referred by B’Tselem to the military authorities since 2000, no investigation was even opened; in another half, the cases were eventually closed with no action taken; and only in 25 cases, were indictments served. And get this: during that time, the military authorities have physically lost track of 44 cases – more than the 25 cases that went to court. Israel insists that all of this is legal, under both Israeli law and international law.

It is not.

But this fact is of little practical significance in terms of keeping Israel from carrying on implementing its policies because, regrettably, international law lacks any effective enforcement mechanisms. And so, Israeli policies are implemented and advanced with ever greater domestic support. Despite broad international agreement – including previous Security Council resolutions – that the settlements are illegal, the only measurable change in this area is the growing number of settlements, of settlers, and of Palestinians living in their shadow, facing demolitions or displacement.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

B’Tselem has worked for 27 years to document and publish violations of human rights in the occupied territories, to analyze and interpret data, and advocate locally and internationally on these issues. We are not advocating for any specific political outcome: we are fighting human rights violations. In fact, we realize how Israel has effectively used the “peace process” itself to buy time – a great deal of time – while it further establishes more facts on Palestinian ground. B’Tselem’s mission to tell the Israeli public about the ways in which the state oppresses Palestinians will continue as long as the occupation does. We were and will always remain relentless in this effort, for it is our basic moral obligation. But after so many years, one has to draw certain conclusions. Moral principles alone will not be enough. Israel will not cease being an oppressor simply by waking up one day and realizing the brutality of its policies. Decades of false pretexts and genuine fears, economic interests and political dogma, have come together to prevent that eventuality, while too few convincing reasons to change course were presented. And globally?

Six-and-a-half years ago US Vice President Joe Biden warned that “the status quo is not sustainable”. Clearly he was at least six-and-a-half years too early in voicing such a warning. The “status quo” – that ever progressing vector of Israeli interests at the expense of Palestinian rights – has proven not merely sustainable, but in fact thriving.

Almost exactly a year ago the European Union embarked on a six-month “structured dialogue” with Israel, seeking to end administrative home demolitions in Area C. Six months later, the dialogue was going nowhere and demolitions were on the rise, yet the EU decided – to extend the dialogue. If an unprecedented number of demolitions goes hand-in-hand with an unlimited timetable for international dialogue, why stop demolitions?

Clearly, the occupation is internationally sustainable. It is so, because so far the world refuses to take effective action.

Recent years have made that realization even more painful. Israel’s long-term project to maximize its benefits from Palestinian land while minimizing the nuisance of Palestinian presence there has become even more palpable than perhaps ever before. Admittedly, even just half a day spent in the West Bank has long been more than enough to realize the permanence sought for the enterprise that Israeli governments right, center, and left have been advancing there since 1967. Similarly, retired Israeli officials have openly said so – most recently it was put quite simply by a former OC Central Command who said: “The army is there because the State of Israel has no intention of leaving.” But now that Israeli leaders currently in office, from the Prime Minister down, have been skipping the lip-service in real time and openly admitting this – with such a level of official clarity – it seemed that surely, finally, there would be implications. Was one naïve to have that expectation?

Perhaps. While unprecedented clarity in Israeli language has narrowed the divide between Israeli actions and the empty rhetoric on negotiations and diplomacy, the global response to it was, well, yet another report. Demolitions have been stepped up, making 2016 the worst year on record in this sphere. I feel compelled to ask: how many more Palestinian homes must be bulldozed before the realization sinks in that words that are not backed up by action do no more than indicate to Israel that it may carry on?

Video screened during address: Military renews segregation on main street in Hebron, 2015

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The realization of human rights need not wait any longer. Palestinians have the right to life and dignity, the right to determine their own future. These have all been delayed for far too long – and justice delayed is justice denied.

As Martin Luther King Jr taught us, “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor”. So the reality facing the international community is this: absence of action not only effectively gives the oppressor a license to proceed without having to suffer too many repercussions, but also gives the oppressor the power to decide when will be the right time to start considering alternatives. “Wait,” demands Israel, “now is not the right time”. But “‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never’,” responds Martin Luther King Jr. “The time is always right to do what is right.” That time is now: the time to, at long last, take action. The UN Security Council has more than just power: you have a moral responsibility – and a real opportunity – to act with a sense of urgency, before we reach the symbolic date of June 2017 and the second half of that first century begins, to send to the world, to Israelis and to Palestinians, a clear message, backed by international action: Israel cannot have it both ways. You cannot occupy a people for fifty years and call yourself a democracy. You cannot violate the rights of millions and claim international perks justified by hollow words about commitment to shared human rights values.

Israel is a sovereign country established through international legitimacy granted through a historic decision by this very institution in 1947. I am a citizen of that country. It is my homeland. For most of my country’s existence, the world has allowed it to occupy another people. I have lived my entire life, every single day of it, with that reality. Millions of Israelis and Palestinians know no other reality. We need your help. Fifty years of “temporary” occupation are too long for even a single person on this planet to accept such a contradiction in terms. The rights of Palestinians must be realized; the occupation must end; the UN Security Council must act; and the time is now.

About Philip Weiss

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19 Responses

“It is so, because so far the world refuses to take effective action”. So true , it is the West, particularly the US which stops effective action with their veto at the UNSC. As Professor James Crawford explained in his brief to the Trade Union Congress ‘Third Party obligations with respect to Israeli settlements in the OPT. https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/tucfiles/LegalOpinionIsraeliSettlements.pdf
“As noted by the ICJ in the Namibia judgment the qualification of a situation as illegal does not by itself put a stop to it. It can only be a first necessary step in an endeavor to bring the illegal situation to an end. Regrettably, the political will does not exist at present to enforce principles of International law in respect of settlements.”
I think the points he made in this long opinion was that individual states had a duty to not recognize unlawful situations or collude with them, but that they did not have to actively pursue International law obligations against the offending state on an individual basis, and probably outside UNSC responsibility. Although he did say that states could stop trading in settlement goods and still be within World Trade Organization rules.
For an understanding of the veto power and its effective use for the five permanent members and most importantly their friends see ‘The Attorney Generals advice was sound’ by Dr David Morrison http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/ags-legal-advice.pdf

This will not change. Hillary means 8 more years of the status quo. In her Wikileaks email she has said that she prefers a Potemkim process to no process. She knows the game is up. She is simply protecting Israel because A) donors and B) her daughter’s only husband is a Zionist. I basically view her no different than if the next president had been plucked out of AIPAC. Hillary essentially operates like a Jewish Zionist president on the question.

El-Ad’s point about the status quo not only being sustainable but indeed thriving for Israel is a key point. It is thriving because they face no consequences for their criminal Apartheid system. We all know the reasons why, this site writes about it weekly.

During the DNC primaries I was attacked for being too pessimistic when I said that there will be no change and in fact even a regression. In the long run, I’m optimistic, but people underestimate the staying power of the Zionist establishment. Just look at Goldberg’s recent appointment as editor in chief of the Atlantic. His publisher may be a Christian but he acts like a Zionist, too. NPR’s coverage of I/P is laughable.

We only have the students, but that process will still take decades. The next election will not be in 2020 but 2024, because the GOP is demographically finished. I suggest that instead of being carried away, we spend these next eight years organising the democratic/liberal base so that the next candidate cannot get away with being PEP anymore.

And yes, it means a direct and frontal assault on the donor class, with all the cries of “anti-Semitism” as that entails, because the liberal Zionist donor base is the root cause of the inaction of the issue. Until and unless this becomes the broad concensus in the liberal base then NOTHING will happen.

To be stuck in thinking put forth by Krauss , leads to hopelessness and despair. It is utterly bizarre how Zionist Israel is an incarnation of a racist, irrational Nationalism and how Palestinians suffer as victims of a cancerous monster that suffers from megalomania.. We must all break the silence and resist. Predictions are useless!

For the Yahoo it is increasingly becoming a question of attack being the only form of defense. Do not address issues – simply accuse those who question or criticize of being enemies who must be demonized and as the article worryingly points out incited against. Yes he has definitely reached the top of the global narcissist fascist leader stakes and is vying for first place with Kim Jong Un and Robert Mugabe. Proof of the pudding if needed is that Moshe Ya`alon and Ehud Barrack by any measure to the far right in the JSILi political spectrum have distanced themselves from him and his quasi Nazi acolytes.

BTW ref the “Fascist” comments of Ya`alon and Barak if they had been uttered in the UK by a non Jewish citizen they would clearly have been deemed as virulently “anti – Semitic ” by various Jewish/Zionist organisations and under the hilarious new guidelines issued by the recent UK Parliamentary committee would have risked prosecution for hate crimes ?

Hagai El-Ad, one of the most courageous israeli’s I can think of, whose integrity and honesty is a rare thing coming out of the zionist state. His breakdown of the crimes perpetrated by the zionist state is clear and concise, without embellishments. I hope they listen and act. If not, it isn’t because they didn’t know; it will be very clear that it’s because they don’t care. Watch the last video ‘are you an Arab’ over and over again. History repeating itself, we’re all witness to this and nothing is done. I’m ashamed to be a human being.

“I examined whether, legally speaking, if I can ask the interior minister to revoke the citizenship of B’Tselem’s executive director,” declared the Israeli parliament’s coalition chair, David Bitan, who serves as the whip for Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

“I checked, and there’s no legal avenue for doing so today,” Bitan told Israeli television’s Channel 2 on Friday (Hebrew). “But we must strip his citizenship.”

Another beacon of light from the only demoncracy in the ME. Yeah, right.

off topic…Last night (Wednesday) during the debate Clinton asked Trump if he would refuse to be influenced by Russia. Trump said he would not be influenced by “any country” If you watched the Al Smith dinner tonight you witnessed Henry Kissenger, Schumer having some looked like intense conversation with Clinton. The I lobby is one of the groups that own Clinton’s foreign policy. All war hawks As if Israel does not have influence…

Phil if you happen to be watching the Al Smith dinner. Notice how Kissenger was only a few rows behind Clinton. He hovered around her for quite some time waiting to speak with her. Can’t think of the other man with him that appears on Joe Scarborough all of the time. Part of the I lobby mafioso. Schumer and Clinton looked like they had an intense discussion…Kissenger too. Best video coverage was on Cspan. Chris Matthews fit a hob nob in with her too.

Trump’s best line was when he said he had met with Hillary’s election team and then went on to point them out in the crowd. NBC, CNN, etc etc. Funny as hell

They never seem to ask those questions Kay24….long overdue that they did and no better time than now. Israeli support is on the verge of collapse and it just needs a little more effort for the final push and the Occupation will come tumbling down. It just needs people to start asking the American Government and UK Government difficult questions with frequency in public.

I agree Inbound39, it is way overdue. Although he did give them zillions in aid, I sense that Obama has distanced himself from our only true ally in the ME, annoyed that they are not cooperating with peace talks for a 2SS. Still, I think he could have used that leverage to get their behinds to sit down for peace talks.

I can’t disagree with you there Kay….All Obama did by granting $38billion to Netanyahu was to sink America’s standing globally even more. People know clearly those weapons and the money gets used to make Palestinians lives hell and continue the ethnic cleansing. I am hoping Obama makes amends by supporting a Resolution to end Settlements and the Occupation before he leaves office. America owes Palestinians that much.

B’Tselem CEO Hagai El-Ad ‘should find himself another citizenship,’ Likud lawmaker Bitan says after head of nonprofit called on UN Security Council to take action against occupation.
‘Hunting season has started,’ Meretz chairwoman tweets.”

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